Hobby Master Archive

Just 50 miles from Moscow the city of Vitebsk was at the heart of a German Army salient they had held for 3 years. The city was a strategic location because it sat next to the Dvina River and the Moscow to Minsk highway ran through there. In an effort to liberate the city and the salient, Soviet forces amassed two armies and between June 22 and 27 1944 beginning with a large artillery assault the Soviets moved in working from the north and south. They were able to surround and defeat the German forces who lacked the reserves to fend off this type of assault.